My trip

For the first time in three years I took a vacation. This time it was to Alaska, a place I've wanted to visit for a long time. My friend Jenny, of Native Bird Connections, and I flew to Juneau on September 20th to spend 10 days covering a lot of ground. In that time we were in six airplanes, two ferries, one excursion boat to see glaciers and had to rent three cars. It's difficult to get around in that state, they have roads but in order to go many places it requires air or water.

Here are a few of the photos I took while exploring a most fascinating place.

Visiting the Juneau Raptor Center on top of the tram ride. Ann Marie introduced us to LADY BALTIMORE, their resident bald eagle.

A shot of two enormous cruise ships after arriving in Juneau. This photo was taken from the tram as we came down, too foggy to see earlier.

The view from our first ferry ride to Sitka

Visiting the Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka, the largest rehab facility in AK. Susan, new Director Peter Colson, and Jenny.

Some of their non-releasable birds. As it rains there a lot each bird has an umbrella for when a downpour comes along.

We were hoping to see hundreds of bald eagles congregating here but unfortunately that happens next month so we only saw five.

One of the plane rides, this one a small eight passenger on a trip that eventually stopped in Haines.

If you get Nat Geo or Nat Geo Wild on TV you've probably seen this guy. It's Steve Kroschel who works with wolverines. We visited his place one day and saw lots of the animals he keeps there including his wolverine, grey fox, caribou and a very huge lynx.

Some more photos. We visited a musk oxen farm, saw some very large glaciers (I missed one calving), moose, bears at a facility near Girdwood, and hoped to see beluga whales but the closest we got was some sculptures at a visitor center.

In front of one of the very large glaciers.

And one picture that's worth a thousand words. When we parked at a turnout in the bald eagle preserve we were right next to this pile of bear scat. You'll notice that besides seeds there are three pieces of plastic. From someone's lunch perhaps?